Sound of the new California: The So So Cyclers

I have had many discussions with other music lovers about what makes a band or singer so great. While we all agree that a certain level of skill makes it more enjoyable, most concur that it’s the passionate delivery that gets us every time. My first listen to The So So Cyclers “blue and purple” EP had me hook, line and sinker. Here was an emerging band bold enough to traverse genres to explore their creative potential. Icing on the cake? Lead singer, Sam Soto, soaring emotively demanding full engagement. Welcome to the sound of the new California: The So So Cyclers.

Sin chats to Sam to get down and earthy about The So So Cyclers freshly released EP to discover there is depth to their diversity in approach.

What, for you, is music all about?

I couldn’t give a concrete answer even if I wanted to, music is whatever it needs to be for the person who is listening.

That’s what makes it beautiful. That’s what makes it such a massive part of our world’s foundation. Sometimes it touches you at the deepest place in your heart, and sometimes it’s so contrived and faked that it nearly dries out and withers your brain with clichés and dishonesty.

The new EP spans a range of styles and still flows, was this deliberate?

Yes. Very. I don’t believe in making one kind of music any more than I believe in listening to one kind of music and I think many people would agree with me. I find myself unable to write in the same genre time and time again. It seems to me that albums are changing and genre lines are blurring more and more as time goes on, and I just want to be apart of that.

It was really fun. I actually wrote the verses 3 years ago, but recently I was fiddling around on the guitar and this picking part came to me. The minute I had the guitar part the rest of the song just kind of fell out of my brain and probably within the next week I walked into the studio with GRDN and we cut a demo. It was so fresh and so collaborative. Every single part of the song has a little bit of me and a little bit of him in it. Also, Mike Ottavio, a good friend of mine, played a key part in helping me arrange and execute the vocals on the track.

If you collab with anyone tomorrow, who would you choose and why?

Honestly, I prefer to work with people I trust and care about (and vice versa). Music is such a deeply personal thing for me, it’s hard to share the creation of something like that with a stranger. But, right now, I greatly respect Chance the Rapper, Frank Ocean, and Tom Misch.

Can you give us an insight into your songwriting process?

I’m just a vessel, that’s all I know. These songs don’t come from me.

Anything else you want to share with our readers?

Please explore the world around you with an open mind.

There are so many enormous forces that want to glue your eyes to a screen, but there is such a bigger, brighter world outside of all of that.

This year is going to be amazing, I’ve only just begun, believe me. Much more content to come.